I was driving home from a local show Saturday night with my 15 year old boy. We had a blast. Saw awesome cars, good music and a really nice night cruise. He even got off of his phone long enough to enjoy the cruise.

about a mile away from the house I noticed my clutch pedal feeling a little weak. Exactly right front of my driveway all the pressure from the pedal is gone and can’t shift gears. Luckily we made to that point so we pushed her in the garage.

Got under it today and as I suspected. The clutch fluid was completely empty. It’s a hydraulic clutch system. The hoses were dry as a bone no signs of where the fluid came from. Looking a little closer at the bottom of the bell I see it. The hose connections at the throw out bearing looked dry. I’m thinking it’s the bearing itself. Only one way to see for sure and yep, pull tranny time. Thankfully the last time I went throw some clutch issues and had to pull the tranny out I opted to fabricate a removable crossmember so this time should be “smoother”.

Feel free to chime in as I go through this but I’ll update as I go. It’s a hydramax to bearing. Anyone else use this bearing? Anyone else recommend a better hydraulic bearing that would be compatible with my willwood .75 mc?

 

Well you all ready have all the hard work done as far as set up you just need to find out why it happened, when I had a hydraulic clutch the same thing happened it was one of the hoses going to the throw out bearing rubbing on the bellhousing or fly wheel it was a long time ago .

 

I think you will find your problem when you find the leak. Since the leak is not evident from the outside, hoses, fittings, etc., it sounds like the bearing may be the problem. If so, most likely, the clutch disc is full of brake fluid and will need to be replaced. My NSX has a hydraulic clutch, but uses a slave cylinder to operate a manual T/O bearing. No need to pull the transmission if there is a leak. Good luck. Jerry

 

My McLeod blew twice the first was an oring that let go. The second time the hose crimp split right down the middle.,
Jack up the car, refill the reservoir and have someone push on the pedal while you are underneath. If you wear goggles, face shield and a rain coat you wont get soaked if its a hose and it will save a lot of swearing and busted knuckles
Mine broke inside the bell housing but i could reach everything through the fork arm openning

Post pics

 

I wish I could reach mine from the fork opening. I haven’t gotten past jacking the car up yet but I’m leaning towards a blow o ring. Pictures forthcoming.

 

Good luck...hope it works out

 

Got it up on jack stands today. Even went as far as taking off the drive shaft. Progress. When I get a chance to work on it again I will disconnect the speedometer, shift ball, and throw out beating hose. Then I will take the transmission face bolts off. Then I will unbolt my fabricated crossmember (pictures below) and try to figure out a way slide the transmission out and then down. I don’t have a transmission jack but have done this 3 times without one on the floor. Any helpful tips would be great.

 

Is your shift lever removable...You need that out of the way. If you have an engine hoist you want to hook on to the back of the engine and support it with that. Then when you get the crossmemeber out it wont drop on you. Remove the distributor shielding so you can let the back of the engine drop until the dizzy gets close to the fire wall. You will also have to loosen the exhaust at your header collectors so the exhaust isnt holding the motor up. If those side pipes dont come apart you may want to undo the supports so they can droop. I'd rather do that than deal with header bolts.

Depending on your motor mounts is how much tilt you can get. Once you get that far you can unbolt the tranny and slide it backwards. When I did mine I didnt lower it enough and the shifter housing on my 5 speed got hung up on the floor. I went through some extra crap I probably didnt have to to get it low enough to slide out before I noticed that little detail. Depending on your tilt angle, check the idler arm on the passenger side as it may bind on the headers.

If you dont have a tranny jack either strap that tranny to your flloor jack so it doesnt twist or mount a piece of solid plywood on that jack pad to increase the surface area. Unless you can bench a good 80 pounds half way up and then hold it for 15 minutes... you want to be careful just trying to slide it out and lower it on your chest. I used to do that when I was 50, but it gets harder every year and I dont want to bust up my pretty face...lol

I think thats all the stuff I had to deal with

 

as always, thanks for your input Rogers. I’m going to drop it without pulling the engine as I’ve always done. I usually balance it on a jack. It’s a process but doable. I’ll keep this thread posted. Next on the list is to take the trailing arms and diff to Tampa where Van Steel will rebuild both for me. While that stuff is being done I will clean and paint the underside.

 

I didnt pul mine either, just let it rotate backwards. I use a hoist to keep from damaging the dizzy.

Post pics please

 

Going to fabricate a plate out of some left over scraps to make an adapter for my floor jack. Pictures forthcoming

 

Starting fabricating the tranny jack adapter. Had some scrap bolts and a piece metal left over from when I made my removable crossmember. Doing this on the fly but pictures will speak a million words.



Removed the base from the floor jack

Left over metal with 4 scrap bolts and nut

Jack with plate removed

Jack plate from an old floor jack I had that isn’t operable. I will weld this plate on the metal base




Bolt that goes into the floor jack base



I haven’t welded in a long time but I don’t need them to be beautiful welds. Just sturdy

 

I’ll put more pictures in with the next update. Hoping to get it working and drop the tranny today.

 

Well got the to bearing hose off, took off the speedo cable, removed the crossmember,

The adapter completed and fastened in the floor jack

Jack in position


Crossmember off
and took on the shifter stick. Unbolted the tranny at the bell and the home made adapter seems to be doing the job. Don’t have the tranny completely out yet as I think the to bearing won’t let it come completely out. Had enough fun for today so will pick up on it some tomorrow.

 

If you havent gone to the garage yet, look at the top of the tranny through your shifter hole to see if its hanging up ion the floor. Good luck!!

 

I thought that too. Wasn’t that (this time). Turned out to be the fact I was pulling the tranny out it made the bearing get jammed on its shaft. Glad I didn’t pull too hard.

 

Update. I got the bell off and pulled out the tranny. The remaining brake fluid leaked out of the bearing. Cleaned up the bearing and applied light air pressure through the main hose. Definitely wasn’t holding and I could see a little fluid blowing out from the breached o ring. It’s all cleaned up now and I have the new orings for the whole thing on the way. What a PIA for an o ring!



You can see fluid all over the inner bore of the bearing

All cleaned up waiting on new seals. You can see the broken one that caused the leak in the middle.

You can see the break here on the o ring that caused the clutch failure.

Failed o ring.

 

I have no idea what caused this o ring to fail but I hope I don’t have to do this again anytime soon. I’ll check on the clutch while I’m waiting for the seals and make sure everything is hood there. It should be as it’s a McLeod clutch with only 700 ish miles on it. For now it’s time for some FOOTBALL!

 

Looks like mine....LOL

 

Update:

rebuilt the tob last night. Remeasured clearance to specs and the clutch looked fine. So I started putting it all back together. Got the bell on block and the tranny on bell. Later today I’ll torque that down and move on to the crossmember, shifter, attach speedo, and fill the system back up with dot 4. Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll successfully bleed it then put the drive shaft back in and give it a test.